Defenders of the Badge
by Morbane
Summary: The Earth Badge can subdue a team of Pokemon. It does much more than that to those who fight to defend it in their Gym, who are exposed to it constantly. Inspired by a Farla story. Gameverse with some First Movie. Loosely linked to Daydreams.
1. Nor Iron Bars a Cage

Disclaimer: I have no right to profit from Pokémon, so I don't. 

Inspired by Farla's fic, "2 B a Master", this story suggests how the Earth badge **could** work, drawing from Game, Movie, and Cartoon continuities, although it's slightly AU, as it doesn't really fit any of the canon storylines. While the Earth Badge is portrayed here as a cruel, inhumane device, I wouldn't label this as an anti-trainer fic. Just… an extrapolation. Meh. Thanks are owed to Farla, for inspiring this fic, and, since it relies on her ideas, giving me permission to write it.

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Defenders of the Badge

Part One: _Nor Iron Bars a Cage_

"Stone walls do not a prison make,

Nor iron bars a cage;

Minds innocent and quiet take

That for an hermitage;

If I have freedom in my love,

And in my soul am free,

Angels alone that soar above,

Enjoy such liberty."

Verse 4, "To Althea From Prison" ~ Richard Lovelace

Silence coils around the bars of our cells. 

They look empty, spartan, menacing. They are our freedom and security. They are as much freedom as we could possibly have in a Gym, especially this one. Far more pleasant than a simple Pokéball – or free space. These cages prevent us from powerlessly answering the call of a thousand shiny emblems – shaped like a leaf, in two different shades of green. 

These badges control all of us. Obedience is nothing to us; it is the perfection of slavery that we want. We _yearn_ to defend them. We don't have wills while their secret frequencies fill the air. 

Slavery. Will. I can only think those words now, in the silent time when the badges are locked below in the vaults. It is night-time. We never see the sun, but we can always tell its risings and settings, for at those times the badges are brought up, or locked away. 

How could a trainer understand that iron bars represent freedom and protection to us, while we dread Pokéballs? Trainers just don't. Only Giovanni does, and.. he uses the knowledge well. 

Knowing, for instance, that his Badge is one of the most powerful tools of Pokémon control in Kanto, and knowing that Pokémon in Pokéballs are especially susceptible to Badge frequencies, (as those Pokémon are in the form of energy, which is disrupted by electromagnetic waves) he keeps us in physical form, but caged. The iron bars keep us away from the badges. They protect our sanity…

Giovanni is cunning. He protects our sanity for the simple reason that we will use it to serve the badges in battle. It's not like he needs to inspire us to co-operate with him, after all. 

v v v 

We are the defenders of the badge. 

Our daily routine begins when the Gym staff start their work, or when Giovanni's helicopter lands overhead. That wakes us up. The badges are brought up from their underground vault, to a special anteroom that leads off Giovanni's balcony. At this point, we 'wake up' differently. 

We are brought breakfast and we eat it carefully. We eat only for the purpose of taking in energy; the only taste we would notice in our food, now, is the taste of poison. It makes things easier for the gym staff, since they don't have to consider the flavour. 

And the rest of our day... We are brought to a small habitat in the centre of the gym and we begin our training. We have trainers to direct us - their only challenge is making sure that we don't over-do our efforts. Occasionally, we need so badly to be nearer to the badges that we will break away and run to the edge of the habitat - then our reason reminds us that we will 'serve' the badges best by training. 

There is a break for lunch. The trainers are changed throughout the day, and so are our activities. For each activity we complete, we feel fierce pride and relief - but we worry that our efforts won't be adequate. And we keep going. 

We do our best but we grieve that our best may not be enough. We know that the pressure we put on our bodies is nowhere near the pressure that the badges put on our mind; that however we try, we cannot fully answer the 'needs' of the badges. 

If Giovanni is Challenged for the Badge, we are brought back to our cells again - because it drives us wild to know that the badges are in 'danger' and that we can't protect them. We have to wait blindly, following the challenge-battle by the amount of 'danger' that the badges radiate. It is the only time of day that we see our cells as prisons. 

And when the badges are locked away and we are released from our spells, we sit in silence and we thank the Pokégods for our cells. 

v v v 

Once the badges are locked underground, we sit dazed and our thoughts return to us. It's as if a totally new mind emerges from under our convictions, and until our memories return, we struggle with our identities and our personalities. Is the Badge our God? Is the badge a tool of brainwashing? Are we mad or wrong to think any of these thoughts?

It is an agonising struggle. It can last for half an hour or the whole night, depending on our condition and how much we've been in thrall to the badge. 

Pokémon that have been too long in this gym, eventually stop struggling. Their nights are the same as their days, only emptier, and they follow the call of the badge even when it isn't calling. They can't think against the badge, and as a result, they stop thinking entirely. 

Others, who struggle too hard against the siren-song of the Badge, lose their minds differently. The questioning, bitter mind of the night separates itself from the desperately eager, blind mind of the day, and each becomes more and more polarised. These Pokémon are terrified by the blankness in their memories - (at night, they can't remember the day, and during the day, they can't remember the night) - and their inability to understand what they are doing. They lose themselves to panic and blindness. 

And yet it's bitterly ironic that these Pokémon, even before they become completely mad, are no use to Giovanni. Although in both cases they're totally controlled by the badges - totally broken - it's this fact that makes them useless to him. Giovanni needs for there to be a questioning mind behind the mind that serves him. He needs for there to be a hate in us, for the badges, as much as he needs us to love them. It is the balance between love and hate that makes us such perfect fighters - devoted, but calculating - and it is our mental war that he feeds on. He wants us breaking, but not broken. 

Some say Giovanni is evil, even if they don't know about Team Rocket. It would be impossible for him not to be, with the Badges under his command. If power corrupts, by logic, he must be rotten throughout. Well, he is. And he knows the meaning of power - how to use it precisely, to get what he wants. Nothing is more powerful - or more dangerous - than a creature that knows _exactly_ what it wants. 

But, maybe because it serves his own goals, he takes pity on the deranged Pokémon who have been broken by the badge. He doesn't take them away from the gym. Imagine the effect on a Pokémon that has become completely broken to the Badge - being removed completely from its effect? Worse than torture. Worse than insanity. No, Giovanni shoots them. Quickly, without ceremony. 

__

That's their release. 

v v v 

Although we are free at night, the Badge still influences us. After all, it's only locked underground, not far away - and we are Ground Pokémon. 

So we are glad we have iron bars, which keep us from wandering towards the badges, and spending the night slumped as close to them as possible. Which would rapidly destroy our selves. 

The badges compel us to sleep too, although, after a day of driven exercise, we choose it anyway. But those who try to stay wakeful, defying the Badge, find themselves fighting more than weariness. If they succeed, they end up using the Badge to punish themselves, the next day, when they push themselves into collapse with the desperation of their training. 

They die quickly too. 

But for some of the night, after _my_ mental struggle is over, I stay awake; thinking of how to thwart the badges. So do several of the others. We spend our waking, questioning time, thinking of how to escape the badges' trap. 

And during the day, we use our minds to think how best to serve the Badge. We know that these contradictions will make us go mad faster, but until we _do_ go mad, there is no way we will stop thinking. Even if the very act of thinking helps Giovanni... helps the Badge control us. 

v v v 

How powerful the badges are. 

They take Giovanni's wishes, and impose them on us, so smoothly, that when they're controlling us it feels like the Badge's wishes are our own. 

Just one badge can completely dominate the minds of a team of six Pokémon, even if their trainer is a pushover. What kind of effect do you think nearly a thousand, under the control of Giovanni, would have on his Pokémon? 

Through the badges, Giovanni gives the basic command 'fight defend' – and to us, that translates 'protect and keep the Badge in the gym'. It works too well. Because we, ourselves, figure out how to do that in the best way, and then we do everything we can to carry that out. 

In a way, the Badge control method must teach Giovanni some self-control, too. If he made the command too strong, we would kill in Gym battles in our desperation; if he reacted too angrily to the loss of a badge, again, someone would die. Not a very good situation for a gymleader. 

And so he sharpens his control, and focusses the control of the Badge. 

You might wonder why we keep trying, then, to get loose of the Earth Badge's control. But it's a choice between that or going mad. And if we give up the struggle, we go mad faster. Or die. 

And so we struggle, forever against the Badge that we defend. 

~Thanks Farla!


	2. For and Against

Disclaimer: I have no right to profit from Pokémon, so I don't. The idea for this story comes from Farla, author or co-author of about 66 stories; the one that inspired me was her '2BA Master'. 

Author's Note: This fic isn't actually anti-trainer. It's just anti-badge. Also, this is slightly based on Game canon, and slightly based on TV canon. Mostly, it's my dimension. So it may not conform exactly.

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Defenders of the Badge

Part Two: _For and Against_

Occasionally we watch Giovanni's Gym battles from chambers above the gym, as he does, as part of our training. But our chambers have bars of reinforced steel, and are soundproofed from the arena, so the challenging trainers cannot hear us roar. 

There are six of us - Dugtrio, Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Rhydon, Donphan, and I. I am a Rhyhorn. We change often, however. Most gymleaders face a problem of retiring their old Pokémon, when they reach a level too high for that set by the Gym. Giovanni doesn't; we only live for the time it takes to gain a few levels, and he is always training replacements. 

Today it was Nidoqueen fighting below us in the arena. She was against a Jumpluff, and was alternating Poison Sting with Body Slam - usually a devastating combo against grass/anything types. But the Jumpluff was unusually agile, and had used Cotton Spore well in the beginning of the match. 

Nidoqueen's Body Slam seemed unable to connect, but her Poison Stings hit every now and again. She tried other moves as Giovanni commanded them - but failed... in every one. 

Growing desperate at her failure, she lunged too far, too desperately, and tripped hard with her arm under her. There was a _crack_ that made us, watching, begin to keen, fearing for the Badge - for Nidoqueen had clearly damaged the plates on her left arm, and would be unable to battle. 

We shot jealous glances at each other, wondering who would be chosen next to defend the badges; but as Nidoqueen was carried out by Team Rocket medics, none of us was called down. 

A new door began to slide open, one we had never seen opened before. 

A strange creature emerged in futuristic armour, its head and arms unusually protected. And we all felt a strange feeling of gratitude and relief - broadcasted by the badges, reflecting Giovanni's confidence - in that the Badge would be protected. 

It was. The new Pokémon regarded the Jumpluff, which ran towards it, and suddenly a blue cloud formed around the Jumpluff that was the same shade as the growing light in the Pokémon's eyes. The Jumpluff was hurled to the ground ten metres away. It didn't get up. The next challenger was disposed of just as easily, and Giovanni's strange creature withdrew. 

"What _was_ that?" demanded the trainer, her hand over the Pokéballs containing her defeated Pokémon. 

Giovanni laughed. "Your Pokédex is clearly not equipped to handle my champion," he said offhandedly. "Perhaps you should upgrade it." The trainer stared at him, then stalked out of the gym. 

We were relaxing, bathing in relief. With a Pokémon like that to defend the Badge, it barely mattered if _we_ lost or won. The badges would be safe from now on. 

Giovanni picked up our body language as he glanced at us. 

"Mewtwo will not usually be able to fight for the Gym," he told us, amused. 

A shiver went through us and we straightened, tense again. 

v v v 

There was something, however, in Mewtwo's attitude that I didn't like when I was faced with it in the daytime. Giovanni set us against him as part of our training, and although we eagerly attacked and defended, he pushed us aside with effortless... boredom. 

Boredom. The badges set off alarm bells in my brain. Boredom - meant that Mewtwo didn't care, wasn't loyal to the badges. He might let them slip - not defend them, not keep them close to the gym. He might betray us. 

"Who are you, Mewtwo?" I snarled, pushed by alarm. 

He looked surprised and alerted. Perhaps because none of us had spoken before, and perhaps because of the nature of the question. 

"I am Mew... two," he said enigmatically into our heads, and he stared at his paws.

"What are you doing here, in Giovanni's gym?"

"Fighting... you, you pitiful weak little Pokémon."

"Giovanni would not keep us if we were weak. We have to defend the Badge," Dugtrio said warily with all of her three mouths. 

"The badges," said Mewtwo, an odd light in his eyes - not the blue one, something else. "They make you quite pathetic... you give all your power to Giovanni, so you have none left of your own. It doesn't really matter what I say to you, since you're Giovanni's slaves."

"Not the slaves of Giovanni..." Nidoking hissed. "We serve the _Badge..._"

Nidoking was far down the road to insanity. In my badge-mind, I thought distantly that he would soon be useless. 

"I serve no one," said Mewtwo, coolly. "Giovanni and I are partners, and by his training I will grow stronger... strong enough to claim all my powers and fill all my potential... of control." He smiled. 

"Partners," I spat. "You wear _his_ chains. The only difference between us and you is the Badge."

"It makes all the difference," said Mewtwo, his eyes gleaming. 

v v v 

I came to the conclusion that Giovanni understood Mewtwo well enough, and since the wishes of the badges and of Giovanni were in effect the same, Giovanni would keep Mewtwo from betraying the Badge. There was enough uncertainty, however, to keep me eager in my training. If Mewtwo failed, one of us would have to fight. Giovanni never fought one-on-one battles. 

But Mewtwo seemed to showed too much pride to ever let himself lose. 

v v v 

It was an odd kind of time. Giovanni's attitude was no different, so the Badges exerted the same force on us. But we were confused by Mewtwo – whether we could count on him, whether we should hate him. 

It wasn't thus a very good time to be thinking about how to escape the badge, but that is a cowardly excuse, because it was never a very good time to plan rebellion. 

There were several possible ways of getting out of the control of the badges. 

One was to destroy them. The effect on us would be unpredictable – but at least no other Pokémon would be enslaved by them again. But how? They were manufactured away from the gym; we didn't know where. 

And with Mewtwo here, it would be more difficult than ever even to damage the badges within the gym. 

Another way was to change my own mind so that I was no longer controlled by the badges. After considering this for a long time, I had given it up. The badges were too well designed. They _fed _on struggle. 

Finally, to change the badges themselves so that they didn't work the right way on us. This was what I generally thought about. 

But even if all this was accomplished, there would still be Giovanni to deal with. And he was the Badge's master. 

v v v 

In order to think of escape plans, I have to consider exactly how the badges work. It's horribly simple. 

Each of the Earth Badges is 'owned' by and keyed to Giovanni, which means that they control all Pokémon that he officially trains. They broadcast his wishes and translate them into commands we can understand and follow. 

A Pokémon who isn't trained by an owner of an Earth Badge doesn't feel the mental force at all. It's only when they come under the Earth Badge that they become tuned into the frequency. 

At night, we pity the Pokémon whose trainers have won badges that day. But sometimes we envy them too. One badge isn't designed to drive Pokémon mad. We could handle one badge, we think, its powers shared among a team of six. 

We, who suffer under a thousand. 

Thanks everyone! Those who have noticed: no, my fic does not run quite true to any Pokémon canon. 


	3. Into the Night

Disclaimer: I have no right to profit from Pokémon, so I don't. 

Author's Note: This fic isn't actually anti-trainer. It's just anti-badge. Also, this is slightly based on Game canon, and slightly based on TV canon. Mostly, it's my dimension. So it may not conform exactly.

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Defenders of the Badge

Part Three: _Into the Night_

As Nidoqueen was injured, the rest of us fought more often in the Gym, covering for her. There were also more Gym battles to be fought. We were entering the season of battles that came before the annual Indigo Tournament, and the battles we faced could be divided into two types; those against experienced trainers who battled just to give their Pokémon experience, often playing to type advantages; and those against rookie, first-year trainers who needed just one or two more badges to enter Indigo, and aimed for the Earth Badge because it was a high-ranking one worth several points. 

The experienced ones were less threat to the Badge. Often, they didn't even challenge Giovanni, preferring to practise with his Junior Trainers. Of which he had a few. They weren't ordinary Junior Trainers, though, as other gyms have them. They were members of Team Rocket whose day job was to train us. They had Pokémon of their own. 

The younger trainers were often very bad, and Giovanni frequently used Mewtwo against them. I suppose he assumed that they were too inexperienced to recognise an unofficial Pokémon. 

Nidoking, too, was sent out a lot. Giovanni seemed to recognise the signs of his mental inbalance, and was possibly hastening his end. Nidoking was becoming mad in the polarised way. 

Occasionally he failed the Badge, fighting only with his strength. On one such occasion I was sent out after him. 

The Pokémon who had defeated him was only a Tauros; a good battling type usually, but already half worn down. I fainted it.

Then the trainer - male, shadowy, I never notice much about them - sent out an Umbreon. 

There are Pokémon who are perfect opponents to each other - it happens rarely, but it happens. Not to say that Rhyhorn are the best sparring partners to Umbreon in general - just that I was an exact match for this particular Umbreon, and immediately, we both knew it.

He was faster than me, of course; I shot off a few Scary Faces at the start, however, and reduced that advantage. Giovanni called out few commands, as usual; I followed them with my own improvisations, and the manoeuvres I had learned. The Umbreon countered. 

"We need this badge!" he barked at me. (To Pokémon, all Pokémon languages convey the same thing. It's a matter of intonation.) He stood at bay, panting, eyes narrowed for my movement.

"You don't want the Badge," I said with both halves of me - day and night - and the sincerity of that statement struck him long enough for me to use Earthquake, which took him down for good. 

v v v 

For good, but not for long. 

The Umbreon's trainer was away for a few days, but he returned to battle. Again, we were our opponents' second fighters, and again, I won. The Umbreon may have needed an Earth badge, and may have been motivated for reasons of his own as well as his trainer's, but I had the Badge behind me, urging me on, and I believe that no other motivation could equal that.

Mewtwo rarely fought. Giovanni was more cautious about who he sent the Psychic aberration up against, preferring to exercise Mewtwo against Dan'in trainers with powerful Pokémon of their own. Several other Pokémon began to be housed in our cells, who weren't Ground types; a Kingler, and a Machamp, for example. 

Giovanni's treatment of Mewtwo seemed understandable. At first he'd enjoyed gloating over the power that Mewtwo provided him; he'd enjoyed watching the stunned faces of challengers whose Pokémon had been effortlessly broken. Now the novelty was wearing off, and Giovanni was seeking ways to boost Mewtwo's power, setting his scientists to discover Mewtwo's capabilities and limits. 

Mewtwo went along with all of this. Perhaps Mewtwo's strength was no longer new to Giovanni, but to Mewtwo, his own powers were a source of infinite amazement. When not exploring them, he spent his time wondering about his own nature, trying to answer questions of who he was and why he had come to be.

v v v 

"_Why_ don't I want the badge?" asked the Umbreon, the fourth time we fought. 

I didn't have an answer - it was too twisted up in my own mind, between what I wanted and what the Badge wanted. I fixed him with my eyes, and rumbled, "You don't want to be a slave!" Then I pounced and used my Stomp technique. 

I believe I broke his leg. Nothing the Pokémon Centre couldn't fix, and certainly nothing that would mark Giovanni as a 'brutal' trainer, or I as a 'dangerous' fighter.

The Umbreon, I came to realise, wanted a better answer. 

When he asked me again, I didn't reply. I was almost defeated at that point. Battling with the Umbreon was like trusting myself to fate and then trying anyway - most other opponents could be gauged. I never knew whether I would win or lose. So far, I had won, and this didn't mean anything. If you flip a coin ten times, and ten times it comes up tails, it is still equally likely to come up heads or tails the next time you flip it. 

And then, the next time I saw the Umbreon, it was in my dreams. 

The night of the dreams, I slept early. I didn't ponder my situation _every_ night - it wasn't a good policy. Some nights I simply slept. That was my plan for staying sane. 

But I had never dreamed before - at least, not under the Badge. Nevertheless, here I was, standing in a dim, grey place. I turned and saw the Umbreon walking towards me. 

"Where are we?"

"In your dreams," the Umbreon explained.

"Oh. I didn't realise I was dreaming," I said simply. "I've never done that before."

"I wouldn't be able to reach you if you weren't."

"What do you mean? You're in my dream. So you can't be real. You're something my mind has recreated."

"I'm not."

"You can say anything you like. It still originates from my own brain."

"My name is Deimos," the Umbreon replied. "Ask me when we next battle, and ask yourself how you could have known."

He disappeared. I sat waiting, wondering what would happen next. There was nothing but greyness, which faded into…

…morning. 

v v v 

I didn't remember to ask. He reminded me.

"Aren't you going to ask me what my name is?" he mocked, as I entered the arena to begin our fight.

I blinked at him. The Badge-mind almost obscured the memory, but I said, "Deimos?"

"That's right."

I shot a Scary Face at him, and he used Leer. 

"Why shouldn't I want a badge?" Deimos asked.

No answer.

"If you won't tell me," Deimos replied, feinting left and leaping _over_ me, "then - see you in your dreams."

And that night, after I'd defeated him, I did. 

Having thought about it before falling asleep, I decided there was nothing wrong with telling him about the Earth Badge and what it did. If, after that, he still wanted it, it was an informed choice and I didn't care. If he decided he didn't, that was one discouraged challenger - so much the better. If he found something in what I told him that would help him win a badge from me, there was nothing I could do about that, and although it was extremely unpleasant to a Defender to lose at the cost of a badge - to our daytime selves, it was something of a phobia - it would probably be good for me to talk to someone, other than the equally obsessed Defenders, about our slavery. 

However, I did want to learn how Deimos managed to enter my dreams. 

Once asleep, I asked him. 

"A dark ability," Deimos said, "although it requires practice and skill."

"Could anyone stop you? Mewtwo, for example?"

"A Psychic couldn't. Another Dark Pokémon could possibly shield you in such a way that I couldn't reach you. You yourself could expel me from your mind - but I won't tell you how - at least, not yet."

Fair enough. Pokémon detect lies more easily than humans, as far as I know; not only did Deimos not lie, he showed no inclination or reason to.

I began to answer his question. 

Thanks everyone! Hrm, I appreciate your honesty. No, my fic does not run quite true to any Pokémon canon. 


End file.
